Warren Buffett again calls for higher taxes on wealthy

Warren Buffett doesn’t give up easily.

After a proposal based on his so called “Buffett Rule” to increase taxes on the wealthy fizzled on Capitol Hill earlier this year, the billionaire investor and head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is at it again.

As fiscal cliff talk buzzes around Washington and Wall Street, Buffett on Monday published a New York Times editorial calling on Congress to impose a 30% tax on people making $1 million to $10 million a year and 35% percent above that.

Buffett started his latest opus with a question over whether higher taxes would keep an investor from playing a good tip from a trusted and admired adviser in favor of keeping their money in a savings account earning a quarter of 1%.

“So let’s forget about the rich and ultrarich going on strike and stuffing their ample funds under their mattresses if — gasp — capital gains rates and ordinary income rates are increased,” Buffett said. “The ultrarich, including me, will forever pursue investment opportunities.”

Buffett is sticking to familiar ground from a 2011 piece, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” in which he pointed out that he paid a lower percentage of his taxable income than anybody else in his office. Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, shot to fame on the revelation and was ultimately invited to attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. But the so-called “Buffett Rule” to raise taxes on the rich didn’t fare as well in Washington.

In an interview with CNN Monday, Norquist said the pledge covers all years while a politician is in Congress, with no expiration date. Some of the Republicans that are back peddling now are the same ones that did so two years ago when the last budget compromise was reached, he said. Norquist wasn’t asked about Buffett and made no comment on the billionaire’s opinion piece in the Times.

Warren Buffett again calls for higher taxes on wealthy

Warren Buffett doesn’t give up easily.

After a proposal based on his so called “Buffett Rule” to increase taxes on the wealthy fizzled on Capitol Hill earlier this year, the billionaire investor and head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is at it again.

As fiscal cliff talk buzzes around Washington and Wall Street, Buffett on Monday published a New York Times editorial calling on Congress to impose a 30% tax on people making $1 million to $10 million a year and 35% percent above that.

Buffett started his latest opus with a question over whether higher taxes would keep an investor from playing a good tip from a trusted and admired adviser in favor of keeping their money in a savings account earning a quarter of 1%.

“So let’s forget about the rich and ultrarich going on strike and stuffing their ample funds under their mattresses if — gasp — capital gains rates and ordinary income rates are increased,” Buffett said. “The ultrarich, including me, will forever pursue investment opportunities.”

Buffett is sticking to familiar ground from a 2011 piece, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” in which he pointed out that he paid a lower percentage of his taxable income than anybody else in his office. Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, shot to fame on the revelation and was ultimately invited to attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. But the so-called “Buffett Rule” to raise taxes on the rich didn’t fare as well in Washington.

In an interview with CNN Monday, Norquist said the pledge covers all years while a politician is in Congress, with no expiration date. Some of the Republicans that are back peddling now are the same ones that did so two years ago when the last budget compromise was reached, he said. Norquist wasn’t asked about Buffett and made no comment on the billionaire’s opinion piece in the Times.